BAGHDAD — Clashes broke out early Monday in northern Iraq as Iraqi forces moved to recapture Kurdish-held oil fields and a military base near the city of Kirkuk, setting the stage for a battle between two U.S. allies.

HAWIJA, Iraq — Iraqi forces retook one of the Islamic State terror group’s last two enclaves in the country on Thursday, overrunning the longtime insurgent bastion of Hawija after a two-week offensive.

Iraqi forces have driven the Islamic State from central Tal Afar and its historic citadel, they said Saturday, placing them on the verge of fully recapturing one of the last IS strongholds in the country.

Residents of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa live in terror, trapped as a massive human shield in the Islamic State’s de facto capital ahead of the final battle with US-backed opposition forces for the militant group’s last major urban stronghold.

Iraqi security forces are preparing to advance toward Mosul airport on the city’s southern edge to increase pressure on Islamic State militants fighting troops who breached their eastern defenses, officers said on Thursday.

The United Nations says it bracing for the world’s biggest and most complex humanitarian effort in the upcoming battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which could make up to 1 million people homeless and see civilians used as human shields or even gassed.

Iraqi forces recaptured a northern air base from the Islamic State group on Saturday, a victory hailed by the prime minister as a key step ahead of the long-awaited operation to retake the northern city of Mosul.

The Jerusalem Post reports: Iraqi forces opened a second front on Saturday in preparation for an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, a day after government troops declared victory over the militants in Falluja. Elite counter-terrorism forces and two

BAGHDAD—Iraqi special forces on Fallujah’s southern outskirts have halted offensive operations against Islamic State on that front, army and police officials said Thursday, as authorities struggled over how to evacuate and protect civilians being held as human shields by the extremist group.

Iraqi forces have recently stalled offensive operations against Islamic State (ISIS/IS/ISIL) jihadists at Fallujah’s outskirts, as concerns over the ultimate fate of trapped civilians and resistance from the jihadist group slowed their advance.